For many of us Labor Day means a day off from work, for some it’s considered the unofficial end of summer, and in an era past it was also the day you packed up all of your white clothes. This Labor Day let's take a moment to reflect on its origins, the labor movement in the United States and the folks of the Pullman Strike for which the holiday was established.
To commemorate the strike, President Grover Cleveland passed legislation making the first Monday of September Labor Day and a federal holiday – seen by many as an attempt at appeasing the workers who had participated in the Pullman Strike.To this day, labor organizers work tirelessly around the United States demanding livable wages, better working conditions, access to benefits, and more. Particularly in the food system, workers earn some of the lowest wages. These jobs include - food preparers, waiters and waitresses, dishwashers, and farm workers
In the true spirit of Labor Day, at Boston Organics we ensure that all of our staff are employees of the company, paid a living wage, have access to company health insurance, and receive paid time off. There’s still a lot of work left to be done to create a food system that provides for the lives and well-being of all of us.
This Labor Day, we hope you join us in remembering the efforts of workers past and present who helped secure national minimum wages, overtime pay, minimum age requirements and many more of the labor rights US workers are entitled to today.